deKay's Gaming Diary

Another week of playing very little but this. After the stumbling block of getting the water sword, I’ve been progressing quickly – seeing off many of the 4* quests without any bother, including the Great Baggi quest, and the combo of a Great Jaggi and a Barroth – together. The Jaggi/Barroth quest was made somewhat harder by the mid-fight arrival of a Qurupeco, so I had to fight all three at once.

I also saw off the Lagiacrus much more easily than I was expecting, but the Rathian handed me my own bottom when fighting him, so I think I need to up some stats before returning there.

Hooray! I’m back in! After more than 70 kills or captures of Royal Ludroths, I finally got a crest drop! It came on a(nother) replay of the 3* Royal Ludroth hunt quest, appearing in the quest rewards after defeating him. Many many times I’ve already done this quest, and nothing. Gah!

But I’m over that little hurdle now, and am well away again. With the crest, I forged a new sword with water powaz, which I used to slaughter the Barroth I previously could barely scratch. After that, I had to kill the big angler fish thing in the Flooded Forest, which I did first attempt without any problems at all. I even then did the first 4* quest, which was incredibly simple – 20 Baggis? Easy!

So glad I didn’t give up on the game. It’s much too good!

Unfortunately, I think I’m coming to the end of my fun with this. I’m stuck, or rather, the game is stuck. I’m trying to obtain a Royal Ludroth Crest so that I can create a water-affinity sword to enable me to defeat the Barroth. Problem is that despite the crest having a 60-odd% drop rate (so long as you smash the crest on the Ludroth’s head), after almost 60 kills or captures I just ONE crest. And that was from my very first kill.

This means I’ve spent around 20 hours of play just killing the same monster over and over and over and over and getting nowhere. I’m convinced my game is broken, as this just isn’t right – I should have more crests by now.

As a result, it’s no longer fun, and I’m not sure I can be bothered any more. It’s a shame, because it was excellent.

This is a big game, isn’t it? I mean, long. Huge. Hours. I’ve plugged over 20 hours (offline) and at least 3 (online) into it so far, and I’ve only just started the 3* offline quests and have barely touched the online quests – let alone go back to previous quests to complete the subquests I’ve missed.

For the first 10 hours or so I was totally lost. Everything was confusing, from inventory management, to farming, the way online works, quests and hunting, combining items, forging armour and weapons, upgrades, skills… the lot. After every quest or two the game threw in another thing to cope with (I can send fishing fleets off? There’s a chef? I can trade commodities?!), and even at 20 hours I’m still learning. How do I even work the bowgun? Why is the Switch Axe useless? Where on earth do I get all these items I need to upgrade stuff?

But it’s excellent. It should be repetitive, mundane, and full of grinding. But somehow, it isn’t. It’s fun, frantic (in places), sedate (in others) and has an OCD Factor 5 hook to keep playing. And who doesn’t like smashing dinosaurs the size of buildings in the face with swords as long as telegraph poles?